


Birds in Cages

by Anonymous



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: Post-Curse of the Black Pearl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-16
Updated: 2008-09-16
Packaged: 2017-10-01 23:22:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is not a formal call, Commodore," Elizabeth said. "My father believes I have retired early, after a long day spent sewing."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birds in Cages

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Dala](http://the_dala.livejournal.com) for her birthday in 2006.

Once, six months after they had arrived in Port Royal, Elizabeth had found a baby bird that had fallen out of the nest, tried to fly too soon, and struck the ground with such force that its wings were crumpled like paper.

It had died in Elizabeth's hands.

She and Will had dug a grave and buried it, marking the spot with a rock the color of milky tea. The bird was only the first creature she tried to rescue on her own — mostly birds, fragile little things whose hearts beat so quickly it was a wonder their bodies did not vibrate, like a plucked harp-string. She always wept at their deaths, but the next time, her tenderness was the same.

She stood at the tall windows of Commodore Norrington's eastern-facing drawing-room, her pale blue dress a faded mimicry of the sky. Her wedding was not for another six weeks, and she could not wear the deep jewel tones that would suit her coloring better until then.

It was nearly dark out; he would have to escort her home or send a servant with her. "You should not have called so late," he said instead of greeting.

"This is not a formal call, Commodore," Elizabeth said. "My father believes I have retired early, after a long day spent sewing."

"Indeed."

"I wished to apologise," Elizabeth said, looking out at the sea beyond his house. "I did not wish to do so in public."

Norrington raised a brow. Elizabeth had never been overly concerned with customary niceties, only learning the routine social graces so she could circumvent them the more easily. "Indeed," he repeated.

"I should not have —" Elizabeth paused, and bit her lip. For all her self-possession, it seemed she had not planned her apology. Or perhaps she was simply unused to making one. Norrington thought the latter the more likely, and while he tried not to think ill of women in general and Elizabeth in particular, he was not pleased to discover this. "It was ill-mannered and ill-considered of me to —" She stopped again. "I'm sorry, James. I'm just — so sorry."

Don't make me say it, he fancied he could hear her thinking. He did not think himself a cruel man, and so he simply tilted his head and said, "Apology accepted."

"Thank you," Elizabeth whispered.

"I am," he admitted, "curious as to why you made your choice. I had not thought you were so much —"

"James," Elizabetn said, turning further to the window, leaning her forehead against the glass, "for the sake of whatever friendship we may be able to salvage from this conversation, please, do not finish that sentence." She took a breath, and he watched her marshal her thoughts.

_The boy is your responsibility, Elizabeth. I leave him in your care._

"He was alone," she said. "And so was I. Motherless children on a vast ship, and he was — he was _mine_."

"He is not alone any more," Norrington said.

"Who does he have?" Elizabeth demanded, turning to face him. "He stole your fiancee, James, you cannot feel much kindness for young, reckless Will Turner. My father never liked him, never trusted him, and he still does not, he's given in to our marriage only because of the display I made of myself on the fortwall, only because he doesn't know how to refuse me. There is no one, James, no one but me, and I will not see him..." she trailed off, her hand at her throat.

"What about Jack Sparrow?" Norrington asked. Elizabeth's look was answer enough. "Tell me," he said, an awkward moment later, "did any of those birds you tried to rescue as a child live?"

A small sound, like a sob, escaped Elizabeth.

"Forgive me," he said. "That was a tactless question." "I did not," Elizabeth said softly, "try to rescue Jack Sparrow. No matter what you thought on board the _Dauntless_, or what you think now, I know very well that he is a ruthless man, a hardened criminal and a drunkard, and I am not at all certain that I like him very much."

"But?"

"But to hang him would have been wrong," she said. "I am sorry, but it was."

Norrington nodded. "I was bound by the law," he said. "I still am."

"I know. And for that, too, I am sorry. I wish I could like you better even than I do. I do not think I shall be able to as long as you must make decisions I believe are wrong."

Norrington drew a breath in, Elizabeth's — Miss Swann's — words making the air in his lungs chill and rank. "I think," he said, measuring his words, letting them drop into the space between them like tiny feathered bodies through branches, "that it is past time you left."

"I did not mean to say that," Elizabeth said as she turned, her skirt rustling softly in the evening quiet.

"But you did."

Elizabeth clenched a fist, and stepped over the damask carpet to where he stood. The carpet was one of the few things he had brought with him from England; it had been the most beautiful thing in his father's vicarage, and when he had been told to choose his inheritance before he sailed away, the rug had been his only request. "I'll see myself out," she murmured, and kissed his cheek, her lips dry against his skin.

He turned to her, and their mouths met briefly, chastely, and something twisted in Norrington's chest.

  
  



End file.
